Senguttuvan

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Senguttuvan was a Chera king who ruled Ancient India during the early centuries of the Common Era. He is famous for the legends surrounding Kannagi, the heroine of the Tamil epic Silapathikaram (Manimekalai, another epic about kannagi's Buddhist daughter). According to legends, Ilango Adigal, the author of Cilpatikaram was Senguttuvan's brother, but denounced the throne to become saint.

Chera king Senkuttuvan, was an Tamil emperor who ruled for 55 years dated to c. 110 - 165 CE ( Pathirruppaththu ). He was believed to be a Buddhist. He was the elder brother of Ilango Adigal, a Jain, pontif and author of the epic Silapathigaram. Senguttuvan, says the epic, was born to Nedun-cheralathan, who bears the title, Imaya Varamban (He who has the Himalayas as his boundary) and the daughter of a Chola king; and as such, he is seen as representing a Tamilian unity.

The conquest of the north and the Himalayas is a leitmotif in the Sangam anthologies which precede the Silappathikaram. ("The Aryans screamed out loud in pain when you attacked them.", says a poem in the Sangam anthologies) The three parts of the epic emphasise the theme to glorify each dynasty. The first part refers to an expedition undertaken to the Himalayas by Thirumavalavan, who was known as Karikalan – the founder of the Chola empire. He is shown as defeating the Maghadha, Avanti, and Vajjra kingdoms. The second part speaks of the Pandyan who conquered the ‘newly arisen Himalayas’ when his ancient land of the Kumari mountains and the Pahruli river were taken by the sea.

It is a theme in the inscriptions of the Chola empire at a later date. One Chola emperor takes on the title, the Conqueror of the Ganges. Minor poetry which arose after the decline of the Cholas praising military commanders and chieftains of the Tamil country also utilise the theme (Karumanikkan Kovai, Kalingathu Parani, etc.).The leitmotif of the Tamil emblem on the Himalayas finds the most vivid expression in the story of Senguttuvan.

The first embassy (a.d. 513) to China from the south of India was of the Chera (Kerala) king, Senguttuvan, made famous in the great Tamil classic Silappadikaram. He was a great ruler, with his capital at Karur (near Trichy). He conquered much of peninsular India. He had no need for any political alliance with China as he had the most powerful navy in this part of the world. Pliny, the Roman historian, writes that his seaport, Muziris (Cranganore), ‘abounds in ships’.

Senguttuvan's interest must have been in promoting trade with China. The Chera kingdom was already having trade with Syria, Egypt, Greece and Rome. Senguttuvan was a Buddhist (his brother, the author of the classic, was a Jain) and the people of Kerala, writes a Chinese historian, were ‘particularly devoted Buddhists’. Ayyavole inscriptions bear this out, as does the famous Polonnaruva inscription of Sri Lanka in the time of Vijayabahu (ca.1120) in which the Tamil idangai velaikkarar are referred to in association with the trade organization of the valanjiyar. In the Silappatikaram, there is reference to a certain Kayavaku, the king of Ceylon. He is said to have attended the coronation of the Chera king Senguttuvan and in opening of Kannagi's temple.The Silappathikaram says that Gajabahu of Lanka invoked the goddess Pattini at Senkuttuvan’s capital to come to his country and give her blessings on the day Senkuttuvan’s father Imaya Varamban’s birth was commemorated there.